


Hungry

by orphan_account



Category: Among Us (Game)
Genre: Alien Impostor(s) (Among Us), Angst, Gen, Gore, Horror, Slasher, The Skeld (Among Us), impostors are taken over by alien parasite, pretty much just The Thing (1982) but from the POV of someone taken over by The Thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:35:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26689756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The Skeld is a research ship deep in space, studying meteors gathered from a previously-undocumented planet. All Purple wants to do is get home, but the Thing that comes off the meteor, and the urges it gives her, have other plans.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	1. In Space...

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't have any good places to mention this, so...  
> Cyan and Lime are transmasc  
> Yellow is transfemme  
> White is non-binary

The blaring Wake-Up Call alarm shook Purple out of sleep, and she groggily reached over to the alarm clock next to her bunk and shut it off. She opened her brown eyes slowly, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom on the research ship Skeld.

 _I wonder if they’ll let me get away with just not showing up and staying in bed,_ Purple thought half-jokingly as she stepped into her color-coded jumpsuit, pausing in front of the mirror to adjust her hazelnut-colored hair. She pressed her hand against the scanner next to the door, and it slid open, letting Purple into the rest of the ship. She steadily made her way from the bunk area to the cafeteria, noticing she was the last to arrive. Again.

“Now that Purple’s decided to join us, we can begin.” Red, a stocky military type with a crew cut so flat you could balance a glass of water on it, shot a pointed glare Purple’s way. She didn’t make eye contact, taking her seat between Yellow, a short-ish redhead who always seemed to be staring at everything in curious excitement, and Orange, a lanky computer geek with a Kurt Cobain haircut.

“As I was _saying_ , we’re picking up a sample from DG-26 today. I need everyone at _full_ alert. Orange, White, you two are going to be studying it for the foreseeable future. Understood?” White, who had olive-colored skin and perpetual bedhead, nodded and glanced over at Orange. It was more or less an open secret that they had what could only be described as a schoolyard crush on Orange, so Purple figured that would lead to some entertaining lunch-break gossip.

Working on The Skeld and being in high school were shockingly similar experiences.

“Everyone else, your tasks have been sent to your communicators. Dismissed!” Purple stood up, looking over to Yellow.

“Where’re you headed? I’ve got a _ton_ of shit to do in electrical.”

Yellow looked down at her communicator, which had stickers of some blue-haired anime singer all over the case. “I’ve got... ugh, trash duty in storage. I swear, Red _hates_ me. I always get trash!”

“I think Red hates everyone, to be honest.” The two laughed, going down separate hallways to get their work done.

Purple stepped into electrical and saw Pink, a dark-skinned guy with coke-bottle glasses and coincidentally dyed-pink hair. “Hey Purple! Could you give me a hand with this? It’s the damn power rerouting thing where you have to time it correctly.”

Purple nodded, looking over Pink’s shoulder. She laid her hand on the top button, watching the dial slowly turn. It took a few tries between them, but power was successfully rerouted to weapons, and Pink shuffled off to do whatever else was on his list. She had several different tasks involving the wires, so she was about wrist-deep in multicolored wires when the lights cut out, and red lights started flashing. Calls of “Power’s out!” were heard, and Purple sighed. _Ugh, turning power on is so tedious._

“I got it! I’m already here!” She shouted out into the ship, to minimal response. Purple opened the breaker box, coughing as a plume of black smoke billowed out. “Sh-shit..!”

While Purple flipped switches at random, hoping the combination to turn the lights on would come to her, some... _thing_ slithered along the ground behind her. She didn’t realize it was there until it was on her, and Purple’s last sight before passing out was of some slimy black ooze forcing its way into her mouth.

“Purple? It’s been a hot minute, do you need help?” Cyan, a blonde man with several facial piercings, knocked on the wall of electrical, carrying a flashlight. He saw Purple writhing on the ground, her eyes rolled halfway back up into her head, and he pretty reasonably panicked. “I need medical! Purple’s hurt!”

In the chaos, someone flipped the correct switches, and the lights flickered back on while Black (a rather muscular woman) and Cyan carried Purple’s unconscious body into the Medbay. “What did you see?” Black’s Southern accent shone through as she looked to Cyan and the two laid Purple on a bed.

“I-I don’t know! I went to check on her since the lights were taking forever, and she was just... _lying_ there. She’s not dead, is she?”

Black shook her head, feeling Purple’s neck for a pulse. “Not yet, thankfully.” She started CPR, and Purple’s eyes shot open after the third or fourth set of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth.

She sat up in a panic, wiping at her face. “Oh, shit..! I was... I opened... God, I feel sick... I-I need to finish electrical...”

Black laid an arm across Purple, easing her down. “Easy, sugar. You’re lucky to be alive. Do you remember what happened? Cyan here found you on the ground kickin’ like a demon.”

“I... I opened the breaker panel, and...” Purple tried to think; she didn’t recall anything past flipping switches in electrical. “I must have accidentally shocked myself or something.”

“That makes sense, I guess. Sent your body into shock, needed a lil’ kick to get it going again.” Black nodded, glancing back to the growing crowd of people outside the Medbay. “She’s alright, y’all. Get back to work.”

Purple put a hand on her head, groaning. “Ugh, my _head_...” She leaned back in the bed, and closed her eyes gently, just trying to calm her raging headache.

**_Hungry._ **A deep, hoarse voice growled the word, seemingly coming from all sides.

Purple’s eyes jolted open, looking for the source of the voice that had spoken the single word. “Did you hear that?!”

Cyan looked down at her, confused. “Hear... what?”

Purple sighed, looking back up at the ceiling. “N-nothing. Just... adrenalin rush.”

Black glanced down at Purple, slowly stepping away. “I gotta get back, I was in the middle of fixing up the shields. You gonna be alright, sugar?”

Purple nodded, wordlessly climbing out of the bed. She felt so _funky_ , like she’d just woken up from a midday nap. Checking the time, Purple was disappointed to see that it was still another hour until lunch break. She was so damn

**_hungry_ **

that she was _excited_ to eat the Skeld’s lousy ready-made food.

Yellow caught sight of Purple while she walked away, and hurried over. Purple weakly smiled at her, and held up an open palm, universal signal for “I’m really not ready for a hug yet.”

“Are you ok?! I was so worried, I heard Cyan yelling and I thought maybe you electrocuted yourself and--” Purple put her hand on Yellow’s shoulder, trying to calm her.

“I’m fine now, alright? All good. Promise.” Yellow was like a little sister to Purple, although she didn’t openly admit it. The two cared very deeply for one another, and had been practically inseparable since training.

“I need to go work on the lower engine... are you _sure_ you don’t want me to come with you? What if--”

“Nope. No what-if’s. I’m going to do some refuel runs, and then I’m taking lunch break ASAP.” Purple sauntered off, grabbing a fuel can in the storage bay and going through the mind-numbing process of filling the can, bringing it to the upper engine, emptying the can, checking the engine’s fill, and repeating it until the engine was _finally_ fueled.

On her way to drop off the fuel can, Purple saw White searching around. “You lose something?” White glanced up at Purple, clearly not having realized she was there.

“O-oh! Uh, kind of. There was some strange substance on the meteor we got from DG-26, and it’s gone. I’m wondering if it got stuck to something, or if it just evaporated or whatever. It wasn’t alive or toxic or anything, so I’m not terribly _worried_. It looks like a weird black ooze, have you seen it?” They gestured wildly with their hands while they talked, and Purple tried to think. She was sure she had seen

**_nothing of the sort_ **

earlier.

“Uh... no, can’t say I have. Sorry. I’ll let you know if I catch sight of your missing oobleck, White.” Purple shrugged, dropping the fuel can and leaving the fuel-stained heavy gloves with it. She wiped her mouth, realizing she’d been drooling without realizing. God, she was so

**_hungry hungry hungry_ **

it was killing her.

Purple checked her lunch break in with her communicator, stepping into the cafeteria and glancing at the rows of ready-made trays. She grabbed the closest one to her, sitting at one of the empty tables and immediately digging into the food. It was some sort of stew or something; Purple didn’t much care. She finished the entire tray in under a minute, but only felt

**_hungrier_ **

than before. She was craving something, something she _knew_ the name of, it was on the tip of her tongue, it had to be...

“What the _shit_?!” A sudden vulgar cry yanked Purple out of her own head, and she whipped around to the corner of the cafeteria, where the screams came from. There, she caught sight of Lime, a rather muscular guy and the one who had shouted, pushing away White. White was completely dead-eyed, and was swiping and grabbing at Lime’s face.

“White, what the Hell?” Purple grabbed White by the back of their jumpsuit, and they swiped at her, howling some awful guttural sound. She was knocked to the ground and Lime backed off, gripping his arm, which had been ripped open by White. They turned towards Purple and their face suddenly split open at the mouth, displaying rows upon rows of yellowed teeth and a pitch-black snake-like tongue.

“ _Oh my God!_ ” Someone shouted, and there was a loud _BANG_. The side of White’s head exploded, sending some yellow-ish sludge splattering across the wall. Purple crawled back, wiping at the bits of the thing that used to be White off of her front.

“It appears we had an impostor in our midst.” Red, clutching a gun from Weapons, stared at the corpse of the White-Thing. “Effective immediately, helmets are to be worn at all times in case of air contamination. Orange, I need you to examine the body. Do you think you’ll be mentally fit enough to do that?”

Orange wordlessly nodded, very slowly moving towards the White-Thing. He ran a hand along it, sighed, and lifted it. Red turned to Purple, and to Lime. “Are you two okay?”

Lime nodded, rubbing at his arm. “Yeah, didn’t even break the skin. No idea what they were trying to do...”

“Eat you.” Purple stared at the yellow splatter on the wall, mixed with bits of hair, flesh, and brain matter. “It was hungry. Whatever it was, it had finished eating White... and it moved to the next closest meal.”

**_you’re learning fast_ **

Red nodded, and waved around the cafeteria. “Everyone, get your damned helmets on and get back to work! I’m sending out a distress call, and we’ll get all this sorted out. Move!”

Purple shuffled into her bunk, reaching for her helmet and looking in the mirror. The face she saw felt alien; like there was someone else looking at her through the mirror. A second face beneath her own, if you will.

She pulled her helmet on, attaching the oxygen filter, and looked back at the mirror. The feeling was gone. The only person in the mirror was her. She was sure of it.

Hours passed, and Purple had finished her tasks without much more incident. She stepped into Medbay, looking over at Orange, who was standing over the White-Thing’s body. “So... any news?”

Orange turned around, and nodded. “This _was_ White at some point, but they were probably long-dead by the time it attacked Lime. It looks like some sort of parasite had attached itself to their internal organs, especially the brain.” He pointed to White’s open skull, which had some black substance caked onto it. “I... I think there was some... some _Thing_ on that meteor we were studying.”

Purple nodded, and patted Orange’s shoulder. “They really did care about you, Orange. I’m sorry you have to do this...”

“We were going to go out for dinner once we were back on-planet.” Orange spoke softly, running a gloved hand along the deformed skull of the thing that had taken over his lover. “They said they wanted to date, and... we were going to try something when all this was over.”

Purple sighed, and gripped Orange’s shoulder while he started crying in his helmet. They stood there together for a few minutes, before Orange sniffled and nodded. “You go on ahead, I need some time alone. Thank you, Purple. Thank you.”

Purple stepped away, rubbing her stomach and biting her inner lip. She was

**_so very hungry_ **

that she’d have to find something soon.

Yellow bumped right into Purple, and looked up at her. “Oh! I’m sorry! My helmet’s a bit too big, and I can’t see a _thing_ . Did you finish your tasks too?”

“Yeah... have you seen Cyan anywhere? I need to talk to him about... something.” Purple looked down at Yellow and tilted her head slightly. She could only think about how

**_hungry_ **

she was.

“Uh... yeah, he’s over by electrical! Do you want me to come with..?” Purple had already started walking away, ignoring Yellow’s second sentence.

**_It had to feed. It caught sight of the one it had asked about, crouched in front of an electrical panel._ **

“Oh, hey Purple! What’s going on?” Cyan glanced behind him, focusing primarily on the wires in front of him.

“I... I’m s **_o hungry_ ** , Cyan...” Purple slowly pulled her helmet off, licking her **_jagged, yellow_ **teeth.

“Huh? Oh, shit, uh... sorry, I don’t have anything on me.” Cyan glanced up, and saw a flash of Purple’s hair. “Wh... why do you have your helmet off?”

“I ne ** _ed to eat, Cy_** an... **_I’m so_** **_so_** rry...” Purple’s voice seemed to crack as she spoke, alternating between her own and some deep, scratchy, demonic voice.

**_“Purp--” Cyan’s voice was cut off when it punched through his helmet, grabbing his face and crushing it. It heard cracks and pops, and Cyan thrashed about, trying to get out of his killer’s grasp._ **

**_Its mouth opened wider; rows upon rows of the jagged teeth. It would enjoy this kill, its first using this host._ **

**_Purple took its other hand, the one not silencing Cyan’s screams of fear and pain, and reached right into his torso, tearing clean through the skin and feeling his intestines. Blood poured out, coating its lower arm in thick red stains. It pulled out what seemed to be his small intestine, dangling it in his face._ **

**_“Do you see it? This is yours.” It taunted its meal, which could produce only a horrified whimper. It laughed quietly, and pressed a finger to its lips. “Quiet- no talking during mealtime.”_ **

**_Purple took a bite out of Cyan’s intestine, and then another, and kept eating until the entire thing was gone. It slowly slid its helmet back on,_ **and Purple woke up.

“Oh my... _Oh my God!_ ” Purple screamed at the sight of Cyan’s gored body, nearly throwing up in her helmet. “Cyan! Someone help! Oh, _shit_!” She kept screaming, running over to Cyan and trying to prop him up. “Come on, man, look at me... you’re not gonna die, ok? I’m right here, Cyan, I’m here...”

Cyan’s voice, barely clinging to life, muttered out four barely-audible words; “But it was you.”

Yellow found Purple and Cyan first, and did vomit into her helmet. Lime was close behind, and he hollered down the halls. The others came quickly, and found a sobbing, blood-covered Purple clutching a _very_ dead Cyan.

Red was the first to step in, as per usual. He told everyone to get to their bunks, said that an investigation would be conducted and whoever had killed Cyan would be punished. All Purple could hear, even as Yellow ushered her to the bunk areas and as her door locked, was Cyan’s four last words.

“But it was you.”

Purple pulled her helmet off, and looked in the mirror. Her face was covered in blood, and when she opened her mouth, so were her teeth.

“Who are you..?” She stared at herself in the mirror, and the face staring back spoke.

**_“I’m you.” It spoke in a raspy tone, with a slight chuckle to it._ **

“Bullshit. I wouldn’t have done that.” Purple slammed her hands on the sink, and the face in the mirror did the same.

**_“But you did. We did. And oh, we enjoyed it... we’re not hungry now, no... but tomorrow? We’ll be oh so very hungry again. And we’ll do it again. And enjoy it again.” Its tongue hung out of its mouth, covered in that damned black ooze._ **

“No! I... I’ll fight you off. Orange will do... do something! You won’t _win_.” Purple spoke through gritted teeth, and her reflection’s eyes became a pure black, with horrible glowing yellow pinpricks in them.

**_“All anyone can do is wait. Once you die, I take control... and all I’d like to do is eat. Goodnight, Purple. I’ll see you in your nightmares.” It laughed, an_ _d_** Purple slammed her fists against the sink again. When she looked back, her reflection was her again, with normal teeth and tear tracks making lines in the still-wet blood on her face. She washed it off, tossing her blood-soaked suit into the laundry chute and laying in bed.

It was wrong about seeing her in her nightmares; she didn’t sleep for even a moment that night.


	2. A Clockwork Purple

Purple sat up the next morning, shutting off her alarm clock before it went off. She glanced in the mirror, and the person in it looked like her. Her eyes, her hair, her face...

Then again, she couldn’t be really sure anymore.

She slid into a clean jumpsuit, and pulled her helmet on. The sound of her breathing rattled against the oxygen filter, and Purple stared at herself for another moment before pressing her hand against the scanner. It scanned for a moment, before flashing red and beeping.

**INCORRECT BIO-DATA OBSERVED. TRY AGAIN.** Purple stared at the message on the scanner, and pressed her hand against it again. Same error, same message. It didn’t make any damn sense-- she’d registered every aspect of her bio-data to this ship before takeoff. A strand of hair, a saliva sample, fingerprints, retina scans... Hell, she’d even peed into a cup for some ungodly reason. Why would it stop recognizing her now?!

**_We know why._ **

Purple tore her glove off, pressing her bare palm against the cold metal. It scanned for nearly thirty seconds, before finally opening the door. She slipped her glove back on, taking a deep breath. She was still human. She was still Purple.

**_For now._ **

Purple shuffled into the cafeteria, where Red, Yellow, Pink, Black, and Lime were waiting. Orange was nowhere to be found, presumably either in medbay or in his dorm grieving.

“An SOS call was sent out at 0400 hours today. A military vessel heard us, and will be here in exactly six days. They have the technology to get rid of any... thing on this ship that shouldn’t be.” Red’s drill instructor voice sounded even more menacing through the pseudo-microphone in his helmet, and everyone simply nodded. Even Purple had no snarky comments for once.

Everyone’s communicators dinged, and Red nodded. “You have your tasks. Nobody is to be alone for any reason, at any time, other than bathrooms. Any injuries or suspicions are to be reported immediately. Get out there and get to it!”

Purple stood, and Yellow practically bolted to her. “Can... I stay with you?” Her voice was tiny, and Purple could tell she was absolutely terrified.

**_If you want her to live, the answer is no._ **

“I... I don’t think that’s a good idea right now, okay? I just... not right now, Yellow.” Purple glanced down at her friend, and felt a pang of guilt. Yellow was just a kid, barely out of high school and not even old enough to drink, and here she was floating in space with a murderer on the loose.

“O-oh, uh... I’ll stick with Lime, then..!” Yellow nodded, backing off very slightly. Purple sighed,

**_admittedly glad that she hadn’t let it eat that one yet,_ **

and glanced over to Pink, who waved awkwardly at Purple. Lime lead Yellow off, and Pink and Purple were left standing alone while Black and Red went to check on Orange.

“So... where’re you headed?” Pink looked down at Purple’s communicator, and she shrugged.

“Comms, electrical, reactor, security, weapons... take your pick.” She shut her communicator off and began walking alongside Pink. The two hadn’t ever really talked much, but they were amicable enough, and Purple was sure

**_it could eat him without much regret._ **

**_“_ ** I’ve got a few comms things to get done, so we’ll go there first.” Pink started down the hallway, and Purple followed. She rubbed a hand across her stomach, feeling a sudden sharp pain running along it, as if she’d cut herself along her belly button.

Purple watched Pink rewire a few things, and “accidentally” leaned on the button to lock the comms door as  **_it took over her body._ **

**_It split at the middle, resolving to make this meal quicker and more painless for the victim. Purple’s upper half rose, as its stomach opened into a gaping maw. Pink turned around just in time to see it and took in a breath to scream, but its tongue shot like a needle through his face before he could even make a sound. In an instant, he was gone, spacesuit and all, eaten in nearly a single chomp by the monster._ **

**_It started to walk Purple down the hall,_ ** leaving her outside the restrooms before giving back control. She stepped into the bathroom with a heavy heart, terrified to return to comms and see the horror show that it had left behind.

She looked in the mirror, and ran a finger along her stomach where the monster’s mouth had opened. It felt like her; pressing against it, even through the suit, there was no sign that there was anything abnormal about her anatomy.

“What are you doing to me..?” Purple whispered, locking the stall behind her and removing her helmet. “Am I even human anymore?”

**_No. You can be so much more. If you let me in, let me feed..._ **

“I... I don’t want to...” Purple choked back tears, feeling it eat at her thoughts. It was like having a second person in her brain at all times, one that told her she had equal control, but who would randomly grab the wheel and do whatever it wanted.

**_I will have my way. When you die, I’ll just puppet your body until it rots into dust and cloth. It’s all a matter of ti--_ **

The bathroom door opened, and Purple saw a pair of yellow boots step into the stall beside hers. She heard Yellow’s helmet decompress and come off, and then soft crying.

“...Yellow..?” Purple spoke softly, trying not to make it weird. “You alright..?”

“Hm? O-oh, Purple, I... n-no, I’m fine, I didn’t know you were in here...” Yellow’s voice hitched as she spoke, and Purple sighed.

“Come on, talk to me. What’s wrong?” Purple laid a hand against the siding of her stall, and heard Yellow take a deep breath.

“I-I don’t wanna die..! There’s so much I still wanna do, I’ve n-never even had my first kiss, I’m just a  _ kid _ , and I... Cy-Cyan’s  _ gone _ , Purple... I don’t wanna be next...” Yellow sobbed harder, and Purple nodded gently.

“I know, I know... you’re not gonna die, ok? I promise you. Red knows what he’s doing. You’re getting home, you’re gonna have that first kiss, and when you’re old and crotchety I’ll be able to tell you I told you so.” Purple tried to soothe Yellow, and it seemed to work. After a moment, her sobbing slowed, and eventually stopped altogether.

“...Purple? Can I say... something weird?”

“Sure you can, kid.”

“I... I sort of see you like a mom.” Purple’s eyes widened, and she exhaled deeply. That was sure unexpected, but... well, it made sense. “I-I mean, my mom wasn’t ever really around, and you just... y-you’re real protective, and I... I’m sorry, I’m not thinking straight, I haven’t eaten or slept since yesterday...”

“No, no, it’s... it’s alright. I get it.” Purple slowly pulled her helmet back on and stepped out of her stall, taking a deep breath. “We’re family, Yellow. Not a conventional one, but... family,”

Yellow pulled Purple into a hug, and Purple cautiously patted her back, feeling the pressure against her previously-open stomach. Yellow hurried off, presumably to assure Lime she hadn’t met a grisly fate, and Purple returned to comms slowly.

“Where the  _ Hell _ is Pink?” Red, Black, and Orange were already in comms, and Red instantly stood in Purple’s face.

“I was taking a leak, told him to wait here. Not my fault he wandered off.” Purple tried to seem nonchalant, and Red snorted.

“You’re such a lying who--”

“Oh, shove it.” Purple cut Red off, a bit too pissed off for his drill sergeant routine. “People are dying, and you’ve got to make this all a dick-measuring contest to prove you’re the toughest on here? If he’s gone, rather than hounding me like you’re Sherlock Holmes, maybe start  _ looking _ !”

All four remained silent for a moment, before Purple sighed. “I’m going to bed. Let me know if he turns up.” She shuffled off, throwing her helmet into a corner of her room and staring in the mirror.

Strangely enough, her teeth had changed, seemingly permanently. They had grown jagged and yellowed... another sign of that  _ thing’s _ control over her.

**_We can make him pay._ **

_ We can?  _ Purple found the sandpaper-esque voice soothing for a change, and stared at her face... at  _ its  _ face... in the mirror.

**_We can make him suffer. Just let me have control overnight... I’ll have a perfect alibi, and you won’t even know that you did it._ **

Purple gripped the sink. Was she going to do this? She tried to think of Yellow, of what she’d think...

But then she saw Red’s stupid smug face in her mind, and rage clouded any decisions she could make.

_ Do it. Make him hurt. _

**_With pleasure._ **


	3. Kiss From A Rose

**_It woke her body in the middle of the night, dragging itself out of bed and to the door. The scanner registered after a few tries, and it stood in the darkened hallway, letting its eyes adjust to the pitch-blackness. It stumbled towards the laundry room, digging through the discarded suits until it found the one it’d disguise itself in._ **

**_Pulling the suit on over Purple’s sleepwear, it latched on the matching helmet from a nearby pile of them, and began its trek to Red’s bunk. She asked it to hurt him, and it’d do exactly that. It was starting to grow fond of this host; not nearly as powerful as most of its previous ones, but delightfully fun to control nonetheless._ **

Red heard the scraping at his door and awoke immediately, years of military training kicking in immediately. “Identify yourself!” He barked, still clad in the ship-issue sleepwear and, deep down, scared.

**_“Open the door...” Its voice managed to mimic the one belonging to the one whose suit it had stolen, a near perfect match. “P-please, I’m hurt...”_ **

“I--” Red instinctively scanned the door open, and his moment of weakness cost him dearly. It stepped in, and the door closed behind it. “So. It was you? Cyan, Pink... all you?”

**_“No.” It pulled its helmet off, and grinned its awful toothy grin at Red. “Do you like what I’ve done with her? Her mind’s an awful puzzle to control, but the body... not exactly the best, but it sure makes do.”_ **

“Now what? You eat me?” Red stood his ground, not showing any fear. Yet. “Tough chance. This ends tonight, freak.”

**_“Poor wording.” It moved in an instant, pinning Red against the wall and gripping his throat. “You’re going to feel every... second... of what I will do to you. She wants you to hurt, and it’s the least I can do to oblige my... landlord’s requests.” It laughed, and ran a finger along Red’s chest._ **

“I’ll see you in Hell!” Red shouted, aware that it was no use. The rooms were all soundproof, after an... _incident_ involving sleep-talkers keeping half the crew up till all hours of the night.

**_“I’m sure you will.” It made its first cut, just below his stomach. Blood poured out and onto its hand, and it looked up for a reaction. Red winced in pain, but gave no cries or moans. “Tough crowd...”_ **

Red spat in its face, and managed to knee its arm at the perfect position. He fell as it let go, its arm bent at the entire wrong angle, and made a break for the door.

**_It grabbed him before he could reach the scanner, its arm already un-breaking itself. “Let’s finish this quickly. I’ve been watching you, Red... I know all your dirty little secrets.” It stood behind him and whispered in his ear, letting its voice slip back into Purple’s._ ** “I see the looks you give **_her_ ** when you think she’s not looking...”

“I... my interest in Purple is _solely_ professional.” Red's voice cracked a bit, and it saw a weak point in him.

**_“_ ** Justifying yourself to your own killer? I knew you were pathetic, but this is... a bit much, don’t you think?” **_Its tongue, snakelike and pitch-black, flicked against his ear while it spoke, and he shivered in her touch. Good. He was afraid._ ** “You even had to... _relieve_ yourself while staring at the cameras. The one **_she_ ** was standing on.”

“N-nobody was in that room! I was alone in security! You’re bullshitting!” Ousted as a pervert, the militaristic façade broke into pieces, and Red became a blubbering mess. “Stop! Stop, stop, _God damn it just stop!_ ”

**_It grinned as it turned him around, pulling its face close to his._ ** “There it is! The fear, the weakness, the **_pitifulness_ ** ... I only wish I could drag it out for longer. But, I must hurry off... so let’s cut dinner short, shall we?” **_It pressed its mouth against his, embracing Red in a kiss of sorts. He hated to admit enjoying it for a moment, in how wrong it was, but then the pain started._ **

He felt something tear in his lower stomach, and its teeth latched onto his face as he flailed, trying to pull himself away from the thing. He felt something pulling from inside him, headed up his esophagus...

It was sucking his insides out.

**_It let go as he gave his last push, and his face tore open as he stumbled back, his intestines hanging out of his mouth in a bloody mess. He tried to call out in pain and fear, but all that it could hear was a worthless choke as he stumbled about, missing half his face and choking to death on his own innards._ **

**_He fell, dead, in the middle of the room. His eyes latched onto its in his final moments, and it grinned, wiping blood off its lips before pulling the helmet back on and reaching for his arm. “I’ll need this, hope you don’t mind.” It yanked his arm off, using it to open the door and carrying it towards the dorm of the one whose suit it had stolen, leaving the blood-soaked suit and severed arm in front of the door like a cat leaving its owner a gored sparrow as a gift._ **

Purple woke up in her bed, sitting up as if she’d just awoken from a dream. She looked at the alarm clock; 3:49 AM. Had it..? Had she..?

**_Go to sleep._ **

She laid down, figuring it best to do as the murderous parasite asked. Her eyes closed, and Purple drifted back into a dreamless sleep.

Morning came abruptly with screaming. Purple managed to stumble into her suit and into the hall to see a bloody mess in front of Black’s door; one of her suits, with a severed human arm sticking out of it, hand open as if stuck in an eternal wave.

Black had screamed, and was scrubbing at her boot in an attempt to get the blood off. “What in God’s name..?!” Purple’s eyes widened inside her helmet, and last night’s events clicked together slowly.

“Yellow, stay back, this isn’t a good sight.” Purple gestured to Yellow quickly, as the two were across from one another, and she hadn’t yet seen the blood. “Black, you’re following me. _Now._ ”

“I... it wasn’t me, darling, I couldn’t hurt a fly...”

“ _Come with me!_ ” Purple nearly screamed, pointing out a trail of blood leading away from the scene. “Either our culprit is at the end of that, or you’re a _monster_ . Yellow, go get the others up.” Yellow hesitated, and Purple snapped at her. “ _Now_ , damnit!”

Yellow hurried off, likely already crying, and Purple grabbed Black and followed the trail. It led across the ship to the rest of the dorms, and into Red’s locked door. “I need the hand.” Purple looked over to Black, who, despite being nearly a foot taller than Purple, was utterly horrified. “Get the hand, country bumpkin!” Black carried the severed arm back, doing her best not to grab any part that was bloody. Purple slammed it against the scanner, and the two beheld the grisly sight of Red, intestines hanging out of his mouth, half his face missing, in a pool of his own blood.

“...my God...” Black spoke under her breath, and a voice came from behind the two.

“God? _God?!_ ” Lime, with Yellow hiding behind him and Orange off to the side, grabbed Black by the collar. “ _I’ll show you God, you bitch!_ ”

“L-Lime, sugar, please, I didn’t, it wasn’t me, I got a wife at home, don’t do this...” Black’s pleas for mercy went ignored as Black dragged her through the ship, stopping near the security airlock. “ _Please!_ My wife’s pregnant, I wanna see my baby... please...”

Orange stood in front of Black as Lime held her in place, and stared down at her. “You took White. And Red. And Cyan. And Pink. You took so much from us...” A single orange glove pulled off Black’s helmet, revealing her sobbing face. “This is for them.”

Black howled, for mercy, for her wife, as Lime dragged her to the airlock. Purple pulled the first switch, and Lime threw Black into the airlock room as the door slammed. “ _Please! I can’t go! I didn’t! You’re making a mistake! God almighty in Heaven, I didn’t!”_

“Do it.” Purple looked up at Lime, who hesitated with his hand on the release button. “Do it! She killed them!” Lime’s hand slammed the button in place, and Black gave one last howl as the airlock opened, and she was sucked into space. They all watched in the security windows as Black thrashed, gripping her throat before slowly curling into the fetal position, and floating off until she was nothing but another speck of black in an endless expanse.

“Lord have mercy on her.” Lime spoke softly, his hands still clenched.

“Lord have mercy on _us_...” Yellow spoke for the first time, and the four silently stood together for what felt like forever.

  
 **_No mercy._ **Its voice spoke in the back of Purple’s mind, and she couldn’t help but agree.


	4. The View Is Most Wonderful From Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay on this one, and its short length-- life's been stressful lately, and chapter 5 is a heck of a project. i've been putting a TON of work into not just writing it, but also working on a neat epilogue of sorts that i'm really proud of, so i can't wait to show you all! :)

The four remaining survivors agreed to forgo their dorms, and brought their blankets and pillows out into the cafeteria. Nobody really wanted to be alone, especially after what happened.

Purple was curled up in her blanket, staring at the ceiling and listening to the others’ quiet snores, when Yellow whispered.

“Purple..?” Her voice was barely audible. “Are you still awake?”

“...yeah, I’m here.” Purple replied after a moment of contemplation. “What’s up?”

“I... I can’t sleep.” Purple could see Yellow’s shadow sit up, and she did the same.

“...” Purple stayed silent for a second, before standing up and motioning to Yellow. “Come on, let’s talk. I don’t wanna wake them.”

Yellow nodded, and the two tiptoed through the Skeld’s silent halls, eventually standing in front of the windows in the loading bay where Black had been ejected mere hours before. Purple looked out into space, sighing.

“And here, am I floating in my tin can, far above the world... Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do...” Purple sang quietly, and Yellow tilted her head in confusion. “David Bowie. My dad used to listen to it when I was a kid. I guess it’s what made me love space so much.”

“Oh.” Yellow stared out the window as well, sighing deeply. Her mess of red hair bounced gently as she did so, and Purple fought an urge to comb it down. “I... what I said the other day, about you being like a... like a  _ mom  _ to me...”

“What I said still stands. We’re family, Yellow.” Purple smiled down at Yellow, who just stared off into the abyss.

“I just... when I was growing up, my parents... they didn’t really ever want me, y’know? They already had my brother, and he’s always been their favorite. Athletic, popular, smart...” Yellow sighed, rubbing her eyes gently. “I always felt like nobody’d ever want me around, y’know? I spent all those years, growing up, just... just wanting Mom and Dad to love me like they did my brother.”

“Awh, Yellow...” Purple gently put an arm around Yellow, pulling her close. “ _ I _ love you. Whatever they did or didn’t do can kick rocks, alright?  _ I _ love you for  _ you _ .”

Yellow looked up to Purple and smiled, wiping a few tears away. “Oh, you’re just saying that...”

“I’m not! Listen, Yellow, you’re a  _ total  _ badass. At your age, I was sitting around in my bedroom, playing computer games and wasting my life. You’re in  _ space _ !” Purple poked Yellow in the gut, and they both giggled. “You’re not only in freakin’ space, you’re the youngest person  _ I  _ can remember being on a research mission. Yellow, any 19-year-old would  _ dream _ to be you!”

Yellow sniffled, and looked out the window. “God, I just... I never thought it’d be like this. I remember standing there, waiting for them to call the names for everyone who got accepted... and when they said my name, I... I felt like  _ someone _ . I’m not just his little sister anymore, y’know? And here I am, living a  _ horror movie _ . At least it’s with you guys. You, and Lime, and Orange...”

Purple rubbed Yellow’s back, and the two stared out into space for a long, silent time. “You know... growing up, I’d always stare up at the night sky, and I’d think to myself,  _ ‘There’s gotta be something up there.’ _ ” Purple smiled, the stars reflecting in her eyes. “There had to be someone else, on some distant planet, staring at her night sky, saying the same thing. I just wanted to touch the stars. And here I am. Here  _ we _ are.”

There was more silence, this time only broken by Yellow’s soft yawn. “I’m going back to bed, Purple. Thank you... thank you so much. I love you.”

“Love you too, kiddo. I’m gonna be here a minute... this view is beautiful.” Purple watched as Yellow walked off, and took in the beautiful image of space. “I’m floating in a most peculiar way... and the stars look very different today...” Purple sang to herself, placing a hand on the window and sighing.

She knew this would be the last time she would see this beauty, at least for herself. And, for the first time since all this started, Purple felt at peace.

Come tomorrow, this would all be over. No more pain. No more hunger. Purple would kill this Thing or die trying.


End file.
